By Jim Maltzman: In what some fans feel is the most feared man in boxing, IBF/WBC light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev weighed in successfully at 174.6 lbs on Friday for his headliner title defense against Adam Deines on Saturday night in this Top Rank promoted card from theKhodynka Ice Palace, in Moscow, Russia. Deines (19-1, 10 KOs) weighed in at 174.3 lbs.
Beterbiev vs. Deines can be seen by U.S boxing fans on ESPN, ESPN Deportes, and ESPN+. The start time is 3:00 p.m. ET/12:00 p.m. PT.
The German-based Russian Deines has backed into this fight with Beterbiev without earning the shot by fighting high-caliber opposition.
Deines lost to Fanlong Meng by a one-sided 12 round decision in 2019. Since then, he’s won his last two fights, beating little-known Joseph Lehr (1-0) and Yevgenii Makhteienko (10-12). #1 IBF Meng was supposed to have fought Beterbiev in 2020, but the fight was canceled due to Chinese fighter visa problems.
Beterbiev wants Canelo
“It would be interested in facing him because he is technically very good,” said Beterbiev to Yahoo Sports News about wanting to fight Canelo Alvarez
“It would be no problem on my side if there a chance to make that fight. I would like to take it. That would be the kind of fight I want.”
The powerful two-time Russian Olympian Beterbiev (15-0, 15 KOs) will be looking to register his 16th consecutive knockout against Deines. Despite having loads of talent and a fighting style, every bit as entertaining as Canelo Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin, Beterbiev, 36, isn’t a household name in the U.S.
The problems that have held Beterbiev back are the lack of popularity for the 175-lb division and his inactivity. More than anything, not fighting regularly has hurt Beterbiev’s popularity, preventing him from building a large fan base with the casual boxing fans.
On Saturday, Beterbiev will be emerging from a 17-month layoff from the ring, caused by illness, injuries, and visa problems. It’s been a maddening witches brew of problems that have led to Beterbiev being out of the ring for an extended period of time, thus preventing him from taking advantage of his biggest career victory over WBC light heavyweight champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk.
If all goes right, Beterbiev (15-0, 15 KOs) would like to use this victory to face North America’s most popular fighter in Canelo Alvarez, but that might require that the Russian fighter move down to 168 if possible.
That might be the only way Beterbiev can lure Canelo to fight him because he’s already made it clear that he’ll no longer be competing at 175.
The light heavyweight division lacks big names
With a fight against Canelo unlikely to happen, the more realistic options for Beterbiev’s future fights are against the winner of the Joe Smith Jr vs. Maxim Vlasov fight, Dimitry Bivol.
Smith isn’t too impressed with Beterbiev’s opposition during his eight-year pro career, pointing out that his only significant win came against Gvozdyk.
That’s true that Beterbiev’s resume is barren of names, which is why he’s failed to increase his popularity the way other less experienced fighters have.
For example, lightweight Teofimo Lopez is more popular in the U.S than Beterbiev, and the reason for that is he’s got several well-known names on his resume that have turned him into a mini-star.
It’s questionable whether Beterbiev will get much from beating Smith, Vlasov, or Bivol. Those guys aren’t super popular either with the casual boxing fans in the States, so it’s improbable that Beterbiev’s popularity will increase much after beating them.
If Beterbiev could lose seven pounds to get down to 168, he could put himself in the mix at super middleweight and potentially get a massive payday against Canelo.
Other weights on Saturday’s Beterbiev vs. Deines card:
- Azizbek Abdugofurov 167.9 lbs vs. Pavel Silyagin 167.9 lbs
- Khariton Agrba 140.1 lbs vs. Helber Rojas 138.2 lbs
- Alexander Besputin 150.6 lbs vs. Viktor Plotnikov TBA
